Finding your paperwork or electronic files can be a problem. You may find that even if you do have some sort of filing system, your structure soon gets quite large with files in multiple locations, which can be hard to navigate. You may find yourself making arbitrary decisions about which folder to place a document in. It may make sense now but in the future, when you look where you think it should be, it’s not there.

At times like this you may resort to the search command from the Wi

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It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with the plethora of green and white papers, reports of advisory committees, guidance notes and circulars relating to education. You may be able to get access to some of them via the websites of relevant government departments and committees.

Although both search engines and subject gateways will help you find the resources that you need, the types of information that you find will differ.

Search engines such as Google and Yahoo! search the internet for keywords or phrases, and then show you the results. These results are not mediated by the search engines, and therefore you need to use your own judgement on the reliability of the results. You may, for example, find websites written by experts, alongside websites written by

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Keywords are significant words which define the subject you are looking for. The importance of keywords is illustrated by the fact that there is a whole industry around providing advice to companies on how to select keywords for their websites that are likely to make it to the top of results lists generated by search engines. We often choose keywords as part of an iterative process; usually if we don't hit on the right search terms straight off, most of us tweak them as we go along based on t

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With regard to the first set of problems – that the rights discourse is not universal but is deeply informed by a Western perspective – it is striking that many actors and commentators on the international stage now frame their arguments and assertions in terms of the language of rights and justice. Yet we need to ask to what extent this language of rights and justice really underpins shared understandings and values. There is a strong case for saying that if there are shared understandin

To a certain extent, the actual content of your lessons will be dictated by the curriculum requirements. However, it should be possible to put across that content in an interesting, imaginative and creative way. Not only will doing this help to engage your students with their work, it will also mean that you enjoy the lessons as well.

There are various ways in which we can make our lesson content as successful and appealing as possible. The more inventive and skilful we can become as te

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The quality of our teaching inevitably has an impact on the behaviour of our students: a student who is busy learning is far less likely to think about misbehaving. Using a range of strategies, positive approaches and rewards will have a positive impact on behaviour on a day-to-day basis. However, one of the key factors in getting sustained good behaviour is ensuring that your students are fully engaged with the work that they are doing.

There are many factors that can contribute to mis

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Earlier in this unit you considered the importance of manipulating and articulating information in order to understand it. This kind of behaviour is at the heart of constructivist and social-constructivist theory. The idea that we learn and understand what we are able to organise and make sense of is not just a theoretical viewpoint, as the next Activity demonstrates.

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If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.

Sir Isaac Newton (Letter to Robert Hooke, 1676)

At the foreground of this final part of the unit is one of its more important themes – that knowledge is something held, developed and perpetuated both by and in the context of communities, societies and cultures. Newton's declaration to Hooke (above

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How much mathematics do you think you know? You may feel that you know quite a lot, or that you are ‘out of practice’ and have forgotten much of it; or perhaps you were never very secure in your mathematical knowledge and feel that you did not achieve complete understanding. Primary teachers are expected to have a confident knowledge of mathematics. You are not expected to reach such a level for this unit, but you do need to know a fair amount. All the mathematics that children go on to d

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